Mated

Chapter 6

Zoey’s POV

The sun shined through the window, waking me.

Stretching, I felt a massive arm around me. Caging me in.

Turning, I found Hunter, his expression peaceful as he slept.

The sun kisses his face, making everything look perfect, from his strong jaw to his messy hair.

Forcing myself to look away and not creepily watch him sleep, my eyes explored the room.

Its massive, his bedroom is bigger than my whole apartment…

My stomach grumbled, deciding to leave Hunter to sleep. I shuffled out of his grip.

Grabbing his shirt and my panties I got dressed and left the room.

Eager for food, or at the very least a coffee and a bathroom.

As I made my way through the massive house, I couldn’t help but be in awe of it.

The walls were white stone, higher than I could even attempt to reach.

The floors wood, polished oak, so beautiful. Every imperfection in the wood only made it look unique.

After a few wrong turns I managed to locate the kitchen.

Making a pot of coffee, I grabbed a bowl of cherries form the fridge.

Normally I wouldn’t be so comfortable in someone else’s house. But something about this over-the-top mansion felt like home.

“Who are you?” Someone growled.

Tensing, I turned around to find a stunning girl, maybe nineteen, with her hands on her hips as she glared at me.

“Hello, are you dumb? Why are you in my house?”

My stomach dropped.

He doesn’t live alone.

He’s not single…

“Zoey, my name is Zoey.”

She stopped, her eyes widening as she sniffed the air.

“You’re the waitress, right?”

As I nodded, she jumped, squealing.

“Mom!”

A second later an older woman came in, tugging two children. A boy and girl, maybe 10 years old.

The woman looked the spitting image of her daughter, same light brown hair, green eyes.

“What are you yelling about Anna?”

“It’s her, Hunters mate.”

The woman’s eyes shot to me as they widened, a smile filling her face.

“Jonathan.” The woman yelled, causing me to jump.

A man joined them, standing behind her. His arm wrapped around her waist.

“You screamed, my love?”

“We have a guest, Hunter’s mate has joined us.”

His eyes widened before turning to me, a smile covering his face.

Mate...

There’s that word again.

His gaze remained on me as I shuffled, trying to cover more of myself with Hunter’s shirt.

What have I gotten myself into?

“Oh, how rude of us. We haven’t introduced ourselves. My name is Rachel, this is my mate, Jonathan. We’re Hunter’s parents.” The woman explained, her hand gesturing to the man behind her.

Parents...

Kill me now.

Smiling I introduced myself, silently praying for a bolt of lightning to come through the ceiling and smite me down.

He lives with his parents, something that would have been nice to know before I walked around in my underwear...

“I can't believe he finally found you.” Anna exclaimed, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the room.

The others all followed as Anna led me to the living room, sitting on a sofa as she pulled me to sit next to her.

“So, tell us about yourself.” Rachel asked, sitting beside Jonathan. The two children leaving to play outside.

When I stayed silent, Rachel smiled, before firing questions at me.

“Do you live in Redwood? You two have obviously mated, when are you planning on having children? Because I think Johnathan would be a lovely name for a boy and I know it would make Hunter happy to honour his father. And I would like to be a grandmother.”

My breath hitched in my throat, making me choke on air.

These people are crazy.

We’ve had one date!

Anna patted my back, trying to soothe me.

My heart began to slow as Jonathan spoke.

“As for the ceremony, we can have that next weekend.”

Ceremony…

Like a wedding?

Holy hell.

What the actual f**k is happening.

None of them seemed to notice my panic as they carried on planning my life with their son.

“He needs to mark you first of course, I don’t understand why he didn’t last night.” Anna mused, her eyes trained on my neck.

“Mark me?” I whispered, finally able to use my voice again.

Her head tilted to the side as she stared at me.

“It’s where he bites you, claims you as his forever.”

Nope.

I’m done.

These people are either going to kidnap me or kill me.

Shooting to my feet, I ran out of the room, just in time to bump into Hunter.

His eyes lit up as he saw me before worry etched his features as he took in my expression.

“What happened? Love, are you okay?”

His hand grabbed mine, trying to pull me towards him.

Snatching my hand from his grip, I took a step away from him.

“Stay away from me.”

Hunter flinched, hurt filling his eyes as I moved away from him.

Without another word I ran up the stairs, back to his room.

I could hear footsteps behind me, and I knew he was following me.

Wasting no time, I grab my clothes. Dressing as quickly as I could as Hunter stepped into the room.

His eyes stayed on me as if he were afraid to look away.

“Zoey, what happened? Please, just talk to me.” he begged.

Shaking my head, I left the room, pushing past him.

“I don’t want to talk about anything, I want to go home.”

“At least let me drive you?”

When I shook my head, not even stopping as I reached the front door, he grabbed my hand.

“We live in the middle of nowhere, you’ll get lost in the woods if you walk.”

Damn it.

I’d been so preoccupied with him last night, I don’t even know where we are.

“Fine, you can drive me to the cafe. But that’s it.”

Hunter drove in silence, his eyes shifting to me every few seconds.

He wanted to say something, but he was choosing to keep quiet. For that I was thankful.

He parked up outside the café, his massive truck, just squeezing into the parking spot.

“Please talk to me, whatever it is I can explain.”

Ignoring him, I jumped out of the truck. Not turning back as I walked inside.

As soon as Hunter drove away, I left the café. My apartment was only a short walk from here and I’d rather he didn’t know where I live.

As soon as I got inside, I collapsed on my bed.

Falling asleep my last thought, no more sleeping with strangers.